The language of popular politics from the Gracchi to Sulla
Abstract
This thesis will add to the debate on the nature of popular politics at Rome from
the time of the Gracchi to Sulla. It examines contemporary evidence in order to
reconstruct the terms in which political discourse was conducted. The period marks a
time of political dynamism in the Republic, prior the fateful precedents set by Sulla, and
falls before the period dominated the Ciceronian corpus. The first aim of the thesis will
be to evaluate and utilize the fragmentary evidence of contemporary oratory in order to
consider the terms in which politicians described themselves and their opponents. This
will allow for a critique of the model of Roman politics derived from Cicero's works
which has been often ascribed to the period. Rather than substantiating the traditional
picture of politics, conducted in terms of the opposition between popularis and optimas,
it reveals that this period is characterized by competition to appropriate the same
rhetorical concepts and identification with the traditional role of the Senate in the res
publica. The second aim is to contribute to the question of the role of ideology in Roman
politics by further demonstrating the existence of a versatile and varied vocabulary
capable of articulating a discourse between different ideological standpoints.
Type
Thesis, PhD Doctor of Philosophy
Rights
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